Teaching Tech Together

Hundreds of grassroots groups have sprung up around the world to teach
programming, web design, robotics, and other skills to free-range
learners outside traditional classrooms. These
groups exist so that people don’t have to learn these things on their
own, but ironically, their founders and instructors are often teaching
themselves how to teach.

There’s a better way. Just as knowing a few basic facts about germs
and nutrition can help you stay healthy, knowing a few things about
psychology, instructional design, inclusivity, and community
organization can help you be a more effective teacher. This book
presents evidence-based practices you can use right now, explains why
we believe they are true, and points you at other resources that will
help you go further. Its four sections cover:

Contributions of all kinds are welcome, from errata and minor
improvements to entirely new sections and chapters. All proposed
contributions will be managed in the same way as edits to Wikipedia
or patches to open source software, and all contributors will be
credited for their work each time a new version is released. Please
see s:joining for details and our code of conduct.

Dedication

For my mother, Doris Wilson,
who taught hundreds of children to read and to believe in themselves.

And for my brother Jeff, who did not live to see it finished.
“Remember, you still have a lot of good times in front of you.”

The Rules

Be kind: all else is details.

Remember that you are not your learners…

…that most people would rather fail than change…

…and that ninety percent of magic consists of knowing one extra thing.

Never teach alone.

Never hesitate to sacrifice truth for clarity.

Make every mistake a lesson.

Remember that no lesson survives first contact with learners…

…that every lesson is too short from the teacher’s point of view and too long from the learner’s…